Class Notes
John Ridland
Owens
(1945-1950)
died08/03/2014
It was with great sadness that the
school learned of the death of John
Owens. John was a member of
Andrewes House during the post-war
years of austerity, an inspirational
leader on the school’s governing body
and a long-serving member of the
Court of the Merchant Taylors’Livery
Company. He was also a distinguished
captain of industry, public servant, and
well-regarded artist.
John was managing director of Cape
Asbestos Fibres between 1967 and 1973,
and served for 10 years as Director-
General of the Dairy Trade Federation
before becomingDeputy Director-
General of the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI) in 1983. He drove the
CBI’s campaign properly to gear-up
British industry for the Single European
Market in 1992. Subsequently, John led
the Building Employers’ Confederation,
extending his commitments to both the
NHS and higher education – he was
Chair of HaringeyHealthcare Trust and a
Governor of Middlesex University.
John was a man entirely comfortable
with tradition, yet was also, in many
ways, a visionary. He played an
important part when the Merchant
Taylors’ Company first established the
Merchant Taylors’ Educational Trust to
consider issues of strategic importance
to British education. As Master of the
Company, he was very keen to increase
the co-operation between all those
schools associated with the Company:
Merchant Taylors’ School; Merchant
Taylors’ School, Crosby; Merchant
Taylors’ School for Girls, Crosby;
Wolverhampton Grammar School; Foyle
and Londonderry College in Northern
Ireland; Wallingford School Oxford, and the
King’s School inMacclesfield. He initiated
an Art competition across the schools,
encouraged the MillenniumConcert at the
Barbican and a combined presence in the
Lord Mayor’s Show.
He was one of the first school governors
to preach the gospel of careers education,
embracing old boy networking, and the
importance of schools having links with
business and industry, long before these
became commonplace. Although Peter
Ingramhad initiated Careers at MTS it
was from 1997 under the guidance of John
Owens, that careers conventions and work
experience began to take o«, somuch so
that the school received coverage in the TES.
He himself initiated the Interview Skills
Conference at MTS, recruitedmost of the
speakers and attended personally whenever
he could in the years up to 2004.
John perhaps recognized earlier than
any other senior figure the sheer scale of
the impact of the digital revolution and
the need for schools to take all aspects of
computing seriously. In his seventies, he
evangelized tirelessly for pervasive wireless
networking, shared digital resources, and
interactivity on websites as early as 2003,
with an energy and knowledge that belied his
mature years and his own formation in the
Arts. He wasMaster of the Company during
the time of the School’s 2002 Inspection,
and sent a warm letter of congratulation to
JonGabitass, the HeadMaster at the time;
he was subsequently amoving spirit in
commissioning Stuart PearsonWright to
paint the portrait of Jon that now hangs in
the Gabitass Room.
An accomplished artist, John was a
member of the RSACouncil. While at
Oxford he had received the Lawrence
Binyon Prize to study in Italy and went on to
train at the Prince of Wales Drawing School
and in the Royal Academy life room, always
drawing from on-the-spot observation.
Besides his role in theMerchant Taylors’
Company, he was a Freeman of the Painter-
Stainers’ Company and a member of the
Armed Forces Arts Society, regularly
exhibiting at theMall Gallery and Painters’
Hall. Some of his work has been collected by
The Royal College of Physicians, some of the
major London clubs, and the Inns of Court.
His etchings and watercolours of classic
scenes fromLondon life are celebrated
(his etchings of St Paul’s are still on sale in
the cathedral). He drew inspiration from
a particular moment. Whilst at MTS, he
undertook one day a solitary pilgrimage
to Southwark Cathedral: “In 1947, whilst
coincidentally in Andrewes House at school,
I visited the cathedral which was in a poor
state after the war. I spotted the arms of the
Merchant Taylors’ Company on a mediaeval
tomb and it turned out to be the tomb of
Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, who died in
London of the plague when he was Bishop
of Winchester and the people of Winchester
refused to give himburial”.
John was very much his ownman and
yet in the catholic nature of his interests
and his ability to celebrate both tradition
and innovation, both industry and the arts,
he was very much aMerchant Taylor. The
unbounded generosity of his commitment
to the school ensures that future generations
of boys will share such breadth of passion
and depth of vision. In that sense, we
may echo the words of Christopher Wren
circumscribed in black marble beneath
the dome of St. Paul’s: Qui vixit … non sibi
sed bono publico. Lector si monumentum
requiris circumspice: “He lived not for
himself, but for the public good. Reader, if
you seek his monument – look around you”.
John is survived by his wife Tin, his
daughter Clare, and sons David, James,
and Thomas.
Christopher Hare,
Chairman of Governors
A selection of John’s etchings and
watercolours is available at
johnowensgallery.com
Concordia
Merchant Taylors’ School
